Fangtastic! (8 page)

At the
corner of the main hall, Ivy set her jaw and abruptly spun around. Twenty feet
behind her, a person in a blue shirt slipped behind a tall girl wearing a
basketball jersey. The girl obviously found this odd, because she stepped aside
to reveal . . . Toby Decker!

“Can I
help you?” the tall girl demanded, peering down at Toby, her hands on her hips.
Toby nervously caught Ivy’s eye and lunged to bury his face in a nearby water
fountain.

Suddenly
Olivia appeared at Ivy’s side. “I’ve been looking for you,” she said.

“Apparently
you’re not the only one,” replied Ivy. “I think Toby Decker is following me.”
She gestured toward the water fountain, where Toby was peering at them as water
filled his mouth.

“That’s
what I need to tell you,” Olivia murmured in a low voice. “Charlotte told
Serena Star that you’re like queen of the Goths, and now Serena’s commanded
Toby to follow your every move.”

“What!?”
exclaimed Ivy.

“Shhh!”
Olivia said and gestured for Ivy to start walking beside her. She spoke out of
the side of her mouth. “Act natural. Serena also thinks people here are
obsessed with vampires.”

Ivy’s
heart skipped a beat, and she couldn’t help glancing over her shoulder, only to
see Toby snapping a huge telephoto lens onto a camera. She whipped her head
back around. “He’s trying to take pictures of us!” she gulped.

“We
shouldn’t be seen together like this,” Olivia said.

Ivy
agreed with a tiny nod and whispered, “Meet me at the Meat & Greet in
thirty.” They split off in different directions down the hall.

A half
hour later, Ivy walked into the Meat & Greet and saw her sister sitting
alone in a booth next to the one where they normally sat, tucked in the back.
She glanced over her shoulder and saw Toby lurking on the edge of the parking
lot.

Ivy
and Olivia exchanged knowing looks, and Ivy went to her usual booth. She sat so
that she and her sister were back to back, separated only by the banquette. Ivy
picked up a menu and pretended to study it.

“I can’t
have Toby on my tail all the time,” she said to her menu. “What if he follows
me to the BloodMart or something?”

From
the booth behind her, Olivia loudly ordered some chocolate cake. Then Ivy heard
her whisper, “Maybe it’s not so bad.”

“That’s
what they used to say about public hanging,” Ivy murmured, “and they were wrong
about that, too.”

“Think
about it,” Olivia whispered over her shoulder. “If Toby’s following you all the
time, you can control what he sees—he won’t find anything interesting if you
don’t let him.”

Ivy
thought about it. Her sister had a deadly point.

Sophia
arrived, looking down at them with a seriously puzzled expression on her face. “Why
are you two sitting in separate booths?”

“Serena
Star assigned Toby Decker to spy on me,” Ivy seethed. “Olivia can’t be seen
with me because she’s a double agent.”

“Craziness,”
Sophia said, scooting in across from Ivy. “I just passed Toby on my way in.”
Then she whispered, “Hi, Olivia,” to the back of Olivia’s head.

“Hi,
Soph,” Olivia whispered back.

“Do
you think my cell phone’s tapped?” Ivy asked.

Sophia
rolled her eyes. “You’re under investigation by Toby Decker, Ivy. Not the FBI.”
Ivy leaned forward. “Olivia found out from Toby that Serena’s really focused on
the vampire angle now.”

“Oh,
no,” Sophia groaned, dropping her face in her hands.

“Pretty
bad, huh?” Olivia called quietly from the next booth.

Ivy
let out a sigh. “Can we change the subject and talk about something that doesn’t
make me feel like biting my own neck?”

For a
long time none of them said anything. Then Olivia said, “Did Ivy tell you about
my film project, Sophia?”

Sophia
nodded. “She said you got all this killer stuff from a dead great-aunt.”

“Who
married a duke,” Olivia added. “It’s actually really romantic.”

“I
wish I could come over and see everything,” Ivy said to her fork. “That
necklace sounds drop dead.”

She
heard Olivia shift in her seat and say, “I don’t think my parents should see us
together. What if they notice how alike we are?”

“You
two
still
haven’t told your parents?” Sophia asked. Ivy shrugged by way
of a response. So far, Sophia was the only other person in the world who knew
Ivy and Olivia were twin sisters.

Suddenly
Olivia stood up, walked to the diner window, and looked outside. Then she came
back and slid into the seat next to Sophia. “He’s gone,” she said. “I just saw
his mom pick him up.”

“That’s
the first good news I’ve heard all day,” Ivy said with relief, as the waitress
appeared and set down Olivia’s cake. Ivy and Sophia both ordered burgers.

Olivia
was looking thoughtful. “I’ve been wondering how come one of us is a vampire
and the other human,” she said once the waitress had gone. “Is it possible for
someone to be born human and then get bitten and turned into a vampire?”

“It
can happen,” Ivy admitted. “But for a human to get turned
into
a
vampire, she first has to get bitten
by
a vampire—and that hasn’t
happened in generations. Even then, it would rely on the person surviving the
vampire’s bite.”

“And
that almost
never
 happens,” Sophia put in. “It’s seriously a
one-in-a-thousand chance.”

“Anyway,”
Ivy said, “I know I was
born
a vampire.”

“How?”
Olivia pressed.

“Because
of her eyes,” Sophia answered matterof-factly. “Born vamps have unusual eye
colors. Trans-vamps don’t.”

Olivia’s
eyes suddenly lit up like she’d had an idea. She held up her spoon. “How about
this? Maybe
I
was born a vampire too, but then I got cured!”

“Cured?”
Ivy repeated. She and Sophia exchanged a grin. “Being a vamp isn’t a disease,
Olivia,” Ivy explained. “It’s not like it is on TV. It’s not a curse.”

“It’s
who we are,” Sophia agreed. “It’s physical. It can’t be undone.”

Olivia
frowned. “So I guess that means one of our parents must have been a vampire and
the other a human,” she mused. “Have siblings like us ever happened before?”

Ivy
and Sophia exchanged glances.

“Um,”
Ivy began, not wanting to freak her sister out. “Actually, there’s a lot of
folklore about that.”

“About
us?” Olivia asked.

“About
humans and vampires, you know, mating,” Sophia explained.

“Most
people think it can’t happen, or that . . .” Ivy hesitated and looked at Sophia
for help.

“Or
that a human and vampire’s offspring couldn’t survive or would have four heads
or something . . . strange . . . like that,” Sophia put in helpfully.

“Hardly
anyone believes the monster thing anymore,” Ivy added hurriedly, seeing a look
of alarm on Olivia’s face.

“But
the legends still crop up,” Sophia pointed out.

“I
know,” Ivy agreed, “but it’s like vampires telling their kids that babies are
delivered by bats.
That
isn’t true either.”

“Anyway,”
Sophia said, “a vampire and a human getting together in that way is forbidden.”

“What
do you mean?” asked Olivia.

“The
Second Law of the Night,” Sophia answered. “A vampire is never to fall in love
with a human.”

“Maybe
our parents broke that rule, and that’s why they put us up for adoption,” Ivy
suggested.

Sophia
considered this and then nodded. “If the coffin fits . . .” she agreed.

“Isn’t
there some way we can find out for sure?” Olivia wondered.

Ivy
thought for a second. “Have you ever tried talking to your adoption agency?”

“My
mom and dad tried to get more information from them a few years ago,” Olivia
told her. “The only thing in the file was a copy of that note I told you about
this morning. Do you know anything about
your
adoption?”

Ivy
shook her head. “All I know is that I was left at a special vampire adoption
agency that placed me with Charles Vega, bachelor. I know my name, where and
when I was born, and that my parents wanted me to have the ring. End of story.
Whenever I ask my dad about it, he just says”—she imitated his smooth baritone—“
‘You must look to the future, my Ivy, not back to the past.’ ”

Olivia
and Sophia both chuckled.

“I used
to think he was right,” Ivy said with a shrug, “but now I feel like I
have
to
know about my past.” Ivy heaved a great sigh. All at once, she’d made up her
mind. “I’m going to talk to someone at the vampire adoption agency.”

Olivia
leaned forward. “You can do that?”

“I can
try,” Ivy said. “If we were able to find each other, maybe we can find our
biological parents, too!”

Just
before seven on Wednesday morning, Ivy was already dressed for school in a
jagged black skirt, a dark red top, and a black crocheted sweater. She hastily
grabbed a bowl from the cupboard, dumped some Marshmallow Platelets in it, and
pulled the milk from the fridge. She plunked it all down on the breakfast table
and switched on the TV, just in time to catch the opening credits of
The
Morning Star,
which consisted of Serena Star’s smiling face superimposed on
the Statue of Liberty.

“Today,”
the announcer’s voice said, “Serena Star digs deeper into what’s wrong with
Franklin Grove!”

What’s
she going to dig up today?
Ivy thought nervously, but her curiosity was immediately thwarted by a
commercial break. By the end of the third commercial, which featured a
seriously annoying dancing bottle of detergent, she was squirming with
impatience.

Finally,
 The Morning Star
came back on, and Ivy cranked up the volume. Serena
appeared to be lying in a dentist’s chair, today wearing a camel-colored
skintight suede suit. Behind her stood a dental assistant in pink scrubs,
smiling awkwardly. Serena sat up. “Good morning, America. I’m Serena Star.

“Welcome
back to my ongoing investigative report on Franklin Grove, where this past
Sunday, a thirteen-year-old boy named Garrick Stephens climbed out of a coffin
during a funeral. Since then, an alarming portrait of this town has come to
light—and it’s filled with darkness.” Serena raised her eyebrows meaningfully. “There’s
only one word to describe today’s story: FANGTASTIC!” The word appeared in huge
letters beside her head, and Ivy rolled her eyes.

“This
is Monica Messler, a dental hygienist here in Franklin Grove. Why don’t you
tell America, Miss Messler, what you just told me about Garrick Stephens?”

Monica
Messler cleared her throat nervously. “He was in here last week,” she said, “inquiring
about getting a set of fake vampire fangs.”

“Shocking!”
cried Serena Star, her eyes wide. “Did he say what he wanted these vampire
fangs for?”

Monica
Messler shook her head. “I guess he’s seen too many horror movies.”

“Or
perhaps,” Serena said, looking into the camera meaningfully, “he’s obsessed
with vampires. And it appears he’s not the only one in Franklin Grove.” She
turned back to her subject. “Miss Messler, have any other strange young people—commonly
known as Goths—been in here making unusual requests?”

“I don’t
think so,” Monica Messler replied.

“Are
you sure?” pushed Serena Star. “Not even a girl named Ivy Vega?”

At the
mention of her own name, Ivy dropped her spoon. Serena Star was checking up on
her on national TV!

“Well,”
said Serena knowingly, after Monica shook her head, “I’m sure it’s only a
matter of time.”

Serena
stood up from the dental chair and stepped toward the camera. “America, I,
Serena Star, have uncovered a secret society of mysterious families in this
sleepy town. They wear black clothes and heavy makeup. They keep themselves to
themselves, rarely mixing with normal people. Why? Because they hide a truly
menacing secret, and fake vampire fangs barely scratch the surface!

“But I
won’t rest until I find out everything this vampiric cult is hiding.” She
leaned forward. “Because the Star of truth must sh—”

Ivy
flipped off the TV set and stormed into the kitchen. She was clearing away her
breakfast bowl, when her dad walked in with the newspaper.

“Good
morning,” he said.

“As
if!” Ivy snapped.

Her
father put his newspaper down on the counter. “You appear to be upset,” he
said.

“Serena
Star said my name on TV!” Ivy exclaimed.

Her
dad raised an eyebrow. “Why would she do that?”

“Because,”
Ivy huffed, “I’m a Goth member of a vampiric cult hiding a terrible secret!”

“Oh,”
said her father. “Is that all?”

“Dad!”
Ivy cried. “Serena Star’s not going to let the story rest until she has every
one of us staked and boxed!”